Cora Girl
by kalissa.bair
Summary: Astro has a new sister that is not entirely normal, will he be able to defeat the evil that she brings with her?. Written by Kalissa and Tressa Bair.


Cora 1

new beginings

By TB, and Kalissa Bair

Chapter 1

Metro City lit up like a glow-ball in the 10:00 O'clock twilight. The tubes that held flying cars busled with activity trying to get home after a hard days work, while underneath, the paths were clear and the shops closed. The only busness open at this hour was The Ministry of Sience (which is normal) and even then it was rather quiet.

In the residential area, All the houses that were scattered all over the foresty area were dark, all besides one house. The house had a blue circular roof, a tan circular base, and a blue garage that seemed to spiral down from the roof. One light shone through the second floor window on the right, cutting into the darkness...

" Big Brother, um...where do I sleep?" Zoran asked. She was standing in the doorway of her brother's room holding a pink suitcase, a pink comforter and a plush pillow.

She looked about 7 or 8 years old, being a robot, it's hard to tell. Her really, really short black hair curled like the tips of a ram's horns at either side of her head, and she had big puppy brown eyes. She wore a long pink blouse that covered the top of her tan pants, and pink ballerina shoes. She looked very human.

The walls of her brother's room were a deep shade of blue with faded blue rockets, stars, and moons in vertical lines all the way around the room. At the back of the room there was a tan desk with a lamp on it and a blue chair next to it, papers were piled on it as well. There was a tanish wooden bookcase in the far right corner next to the desk. The bed was in the middle of the top part of the room. It was a circular shape with a wooden base and a blue comforter covering the mattress and a plush pellow on it. There was only one window in the room and it could have two children sit in it comfortably. It always looked out onto the backyard that looked onto the tree-framed city, which looked pretty in the moonlight.

Zoran's brother, Astro was sitting on the windowstill looking out at the city and thinking about the school that he was going to the next day, and about his freinds, Alaho, Kennedy, and Abocromby that go with him, when his train of thought was interupted by the question.

"Um," he said akwerdly, still trying to get out of his head,"Take the bed. I'll sleep on the windowstill." Then he got up off the windowstill and started pulling the comforter and pellow free of the bed.

Astro looked about 13 and had redwood colored eyes. His jet-black hair was as short as Zorans but had two 'spikes', one on the top right of his head and one on the bottom left. He usally wore black underwear with a green stripe on the top, and red boots that went up to his knees( those things were built in). When he _was_ wearing clothes, they were blue shorts and a light blue T-shirt with a blue vest. This was normally when he was in school.

Zoran waited till he had cleared the bed then started jumping up and down and happily yelled, "Thank you, Big Brother!"

Then she ran over to the bed, dropped her suitcase on the floor, and spread her blanket and pellow on the bed. She then started jumping on the bed. Astro spread his blanket and pellow on the window sill and didn't notice her, instead he looked out the window. The moonlit treetops sparkled in the moonlight, but he didn't notice that eather. He instead, thought about the reason why Zoran was going to sleep in his room for that night.

That morning, Dr. Oshay had called them both into Astro's room.

" Doctor," Astro had asked nervously," Are we in trouble?"

Dr. Oshay had looked at them and sat down on the bed," No," he chuckled," You're not in trouble. But, Zoran will need to use your room tonight so that I can redecorate." he cautioned.

Dr. Oshay was a large man in his 40s with brown eyes and balding white hair. He had a abnormaly large nose, and he normally wore a grey vest over a white buttondown shirt and greyish-black pants.

"Why?" Astro had asked.

"It's a surprise." Dr. Oshay said misteriously.

"Can we have a hint?" Zoran wondered.

"One," he said, "I'm bringing home a robot."

After that, he had got up and left for the Ministry. He is the head of the Ministry of Science. And Zoran had been packing her stuffed animals and getting her blanket ever since he left.

Astro then thought about what the surprise was. He scrached his head in frustration, _is it a dog?_ he thought,_ or a cat? _He looked around the room, the study, the bed, the window, then back to the bed.

"Zoran," He scolded, "Beds are not for jumping, how many times do I have t-" Then they heard the door open downstairs in the living-room.

"Dr!" Astro and Zoran exclaimed together, then rushed downstairs.

The stairs opened up to a path that went to the livingroom and the kitchen. The large brown doubledoor was in the middle. There was another door that lead to a study next to the stairs. The walls were tan with a brown bottom. In the living room, there was a blue couch that curved into U, a brown coffie table, and a TV that stood in the opening of the couch. The carpet, and the floor were both a light tan color.

"Dr. Oshay!" Zoran yelled, leaping into him. Dr. Oshay cought her, almost falling backwards in the prosess.

"Docter!" Astro said running up to him, but unlike Zoran, he didn't jump at him.

"Astro! Zoran!" Dr. Oshay said with some surprise, "What are you still doing up?"

"We were waiting for you!" Zoran said.

"Waiting for me?" He asked.

"Ya! You were gone for most of the day!" She replied.

"Ya... We were wondering why you were taking so long." Astro said.

"Hmmm... I guess I did take a little longer than normal..." He said. He paused for a moment, thinking, then said, "I'm sorry you two, I was just finishing your surprise."

"Really? Can we see it now? Pleeeeese?" Zoran begged.

"After school tomarrow." He said, "Now off to bed."

They went upstairs to bed. As Astro laid down in his window bed, he could hear the docters foot steps... as well as another set of foot prints pass the door. Odd. He looked at Zoran, wondering if she heard it too, but she was already fast asleep. He closed his eyes, thinking he had just imagined it. A few moments later, he drifted off into a dreamless sleep.

That night he woke up suddenly. He blinked his sleepy eyes, then looked outside. It was still dark, the sun was no where in sight. He turned his head back around and looked at the clock. It was midnight... So why was he awake? Then his ears heard a quiet sound, bearly hearable to normal ears. The sound got louder, and he realized, it wasn't just a sound, but music. A wolf howl, a sad and beautiful, yet commanding song. Then, more howls joined it, making it even more beautiful. The music moved him, making him silently tear up.

"Big brother? Whats that sound?" Zoran said wiping her eyes.

"I'm not sure." Astro wispered as he wiped his eyes. Zoran jumped off the bed and sat on his, listening silently.

"It sounds like music." She said. Then she made a face at him. "Are you crying big brother?"

"..." He didn't say anything. Then another voice joined the group, except this one was distinctly human, but much richer and sweeter and female;

_Once again I said, my goodbyes,_

_To those I loved most,_

_My heart feels that famamilar pain,_

_As I long for home..._

_I'm crying out tonight..._

They sang in harmony of eachother.

"Who is that?" Zoran asked. But Astro didn't have an answer. Instead he said,

"Lets go back to bed." Zoran turned to the bed, then she did something really unexpected. She hugged Astro, then jumped into bed.

"Good night Astro."

"Good night Zoran."

A few hours earlier.

Erineana didn't know what made her day worse, her ship being attacked by pirates, her ship being distroyed by pirates, getting stuck in an escape pod that smelled like fish and smoke, falling into an unfamilier planet becuase her escape pod was damaged, or the fact that it was her fault that they were attacked.

It had been a normal day, checking the engines, making reports for the captain, nothing out of the ordinary. She was an engineer after all. _The Marie(a cargo ship)_ had had no trouble for weeks, even when there had been numorous attacks on ships just like their's in that area. She should have known that something was going to go wrong.

The cheif Engineer, Jornie, passed her as she finished her scans. He was a tall young man of about 20, with black hair, and a grease covered face. In the middle of his forhead was the diamond shaped crease, showing he was a Diesnorathian. She herself was only 17, a young adult by their years, but she wasn't a Diesnorathian. She was a... well, she didn't know exactly. Her mom was a species know as a Rutilus to them, but Erineana was born on Diesnorath. Did that make her one of them? She had always pondered that, but she didn't know.

"How's she lookin' Erin?" He asked. He always called her that. It was Jornie's nickname for her, mostly because he thought her name was to long and hard to pronounce.

"She's puring like a kitten, Sir." Erineana replied.

"Good to hear Lautenent." He said, marking off the list on his pad. Then he paused and added, "See you at lunch later?"

"Yep." She said, smiling. Besides being her supireor, Jornie was also her adopted brother. After work, they would have lunch and chat about the day. Lately Erin had noticed Jornie was blushing alot around a particular woman who was on the bridge, namely, the Science officer and she seemed to be doing the same. Erin intended to question him thoroughly during lunch.

"Great, I'll see you in a few hours-" Just then the whole ship rocked, nearly throwing everyone. The alarm for danger sounded.

"We're under attack!" Jornie yelled, "Get to your stations!" Then he tapped his communtcator.

"Captain, what's going on up there?" He asked.

"We're under attack by pirates!" Captain Jaymer replyed, "They're-" Then the communicator went off line.

"Captain? Captain!" Jornie yelled into it, then he swore. The ship rocked again, and this time one of the fuel engecters blew.

"Engines are off line Sir!" One of the officers said. The man who had been near it was on the floor with third degree burns on his face and chest. Erineana ran over to move him as the fire started to close in on him.

"Someone go find the doctor!" Jornie yelled to the room as a whole.

But by the time a couple others came to assist her, the man had no burns on him.

"What the?" A woman who had come to help asked.

Erineana said nothing, and instead put him down.

"There's no need for the doctor." She said. She new exactly what had happened, as it had happened before. Her hands could heal people, it was something her mom could do as well. Jornie nodded. This was no surprise to him either.

Just then a green light swepted through the ship. Everyone tensed, espesally Erin.

It stopped, and disappered.

"What was that about?" Another woman asked.

"They were probably scanning our cargo." Jornie replied, discomfort covered his face. Suddenly _The Marie_ shook, and a loud sound came from the side.

"We're being boarded!" A Diesnorathian soldier yelled, running up to the engine room.

"Shoot! Why would they waste their time with us? We're only shipping empty canisters..." Jornie said, becoming thoughtful. Then he looked at Erin, and understanding crossed his face. He swore again, but more to himself so no one could hear.

"What ever they want, they aren't getting without a fight!" The soldier said diffiently.

"I wouldn't be so hasty. Pirates will do just about anything to get what they want," Erineana said, "My mom's ship met up with them a few months ago, and they barely escaped." Discomfort covered her face. Jornie thought for a moment.

"We have to get to the bridge... What's your name?" Jornie asked the soldier.

"Tommine." He answered.

"You're with me." Jornie said.

"Sir!" Tommine said.

"I'm coming too." Erin said.

"No, you're staying here. I won't put you in danger if this is about what I think it is."

"I can defend myself. The ship is in danger Jornie, I can't hide. Besides, I'm more safe with you than I am here." She stated. He looked at her with some frustration, but could see her reasioning. He gave in with a sigh.

"Fine, but I want you to stay close to me at all times." He commanded. She nodded, excepting his terms.

"The rest of you, get those engines back on line!" He called to the engine crew.

They all nodded, then Jornie, Erineana, and Tommine set off down the corridor.

Chapter 2

It didn't take long to reach the bridge. They had had some close calls with the pirates, but they hadn't been seen or caught. Once they reached the bridge door, they stopped.

"Tommine, activate your suit. We're going to need some protection. I'm fairly certain they have taken the bridge and I don't want to be taken off guard." Jornie ordered.

"Right, give me a second." Tommine replied, searching his suit. His suit was a orange-ish yellow and went from his neck to his feet. It was a common defence suit for the Diesnorath military. Once he found what he was looking for, he pressed a small botton on his thy, making his whole suit turn a purple-ish color, signaling it was fully armored.

"Good." Jornie said. He took a small blaster from his side arm and Tommine got his weapon ready.

"Ready?" He asked them both. They nodded, bracing for what lyed behind that door.

"Let's go." He said, opening it.

Once the door to the bridge opened, they were emmeadietly met up with blasters pointed at their chests, but Tommine and Jornie had already had their weapons out. Erineana stood behind them, ready for an order from Jornie. The people aiming at them were green, yellow eyed, scaly pirates. They also had their weapons pointed at the bridge crew and their captain, and there were about 15 of them.

"Captain!" Jornie said, looking at Captain Jaymer. His face was brused and he had a black eye. He gave the pirates a look of utter hatetred. Jaymer was a good friend of Jornie, he had been like a father to him and Erineana when they were little.

"Let them go!" Erineana yelled angerly. One of the men looked at her, and she looked back at him without fear, or at least, she tried to. Tommine and Jornie contiued to point their weapons at the green men. Then one of them pulled out a small divice.. a scanner, Erin realized. He began to scan the three of them, then stopped on Erineana.

"This is the one." He said.

"What one?" Jornie asked, but he knew.

"This girl is a Rutilus, one of The Golden." Said the one with the scanner, probably the captain of the pirates. Erineana and Jornie's fears came to be realized. They had been looking for her kind on the other cargo ships, knowing one would come from Diesnorath. Erin's mother had probably alerted them when her ship was attacked. They were after the Rosien, a substance only found in her kind. The Rosien turned the Rutilus's blood and hair to gold and gave them many powers, such as telempithy, teleconesis, super senses, the power of flight, healing, and more, depending on the person... And it could turn to gold in the open air. They could be tracked by the large amount of energy they gave off. Erineana was somewhat new to her powers, as she was very young, and she had only mastered three (telempthy, teleconesis, and healing).

"I'm only going to ask this once. Put your weapons down, and hand her over-" The pirate captain started.

"Over my dead body!" Jornie said angerly, pointing his blaster at the pirate's head. The pirate gave him an annoyed look. Apparently, he didn't like being interupted.

"If you do this, we will leave your ship in peace and even your cargo. If you do not, I will start killing these people... Starting with your captain." The pirate captain finished, pointing his weapon at Captain Jaymer.

"Don't do it!" Jaymer yelled. The scaley man charged it up. He had trapped them. Erin couldn't let her captain, her friend, be killed. It was her duty to protect him, even knowing what would happen to her... and since there was no way to save the captain without the pirate firing, there was only one course of action.

"Wait! I'll go!" Erin said, saddness crept into her voice.

"Erin, No!" Jornie said. Tommine shifted uncomfortably.

"That's a good girl. Now come here." Erin started to step away from her companions, but Jornie grabbed her wrist.

"Don't do it." He begged. "Don't give them what they want, don't make me loose my little sister. That's an order." Erin turn to face him.

"I'm sorry Jornie, I can't obey that. There's to much at stake... Take care of yourself." She said, gaving him a sisterly hug, which surpised him, letting her pull away.

Once she was in their custidy, they put cuffs on her and began filing out, taking her with them. She looked at the crews faces, awed and sad. She tryed to smile, but it was hard, with horrable thoughts passing through her mind. Jornie's face was the hardest to look at.

As they neared to the airlock, a few more green men met up with the group.

"The charges have been set." One of them said.

"Charges?" Erineana asked, realizing what they were going to do.

"Get her on board, and lock her in the brig." The captain ordered.

"Yes-"

"They're going to blow up the ship! They lied!" Erin screemed at the top of her lungs, trying to warn them, and stuggling to get away.

"Now!" He said. The rest of them struggled to get her on board as she wrestled, and screamed.

"Let me go! Jornie, they're going to blow up the ship!" She screamed, tears coming into her eyes.

They finally got her on board, then began to take her down to the brig.

"Get us clear!" The captain said.

"_THAT IS IT!"_ Erin yelled, then she swung her fist at the alien to the right. She cought him in the jaw, sending him flying into the wall. Then she struck the one to the left in the chest, and sent him flying. More came at her and she sent them all flying. Then she picked up one of their guns and raced back to the bridge.

The moment she entered, a huge explostion ruptured the ship.

"No!" Erin yelled. She pointed her weapon at the captain, just as everyone noticed she was there.

"Your suppo-" He started.

"You said you would leave that ship in peace!" Erineana said, anger pouring out in every word.

"Oopps! Did I say peace? My tongue must have slipped, I meant pieces, not peace. It's an easy mistake to make." He said, making a sorry gesture with his hands, but it was also mocking. Erin's anger exploded and that's when the engines also exploded. Her anger had set it off. The whole ship rocked and groaned.

"What did you do?!" The captain yelled. Erin didn't answer, but instead, ran out.

As soon as she was clear of the bridge, she rushed down to the escape pods. She had tapped into the mainframe with her mind (which she had done a few times before), and used the ships maps to guide her. She reached the escape pods rather quickly, mostly becuase she didn't meet anyone that could stop her. She stepped inside, started it's engines... then realized it had no windows. Oops. She was just going to have to take her chances.

And that's how she ended up in the escape pod.

She braced for impact as the landing thruster refused to engage.

"Thrusters will not engage, please wait as we investige the problem." The sound of a female voice said.

"O for Diezin's sake!" She yelled at it angerly, pushing buttons. The music came on, something about staying alive, which _did_ _not_ help her mood. She slowed her breathing. There was only one way to stop this pod from distroying everything in and around it. She closed her eyes, consentrating on the pod. She imagined it slowing down, which was hard with the music on.

"Thrusters now activated." It said. _Kiss_ _the_ _ground_ _gentily_, she prayed.

Then it landed, hard, but not as hard as it could have been. The whole pod shook from the impact, making her hit the roof with her head, her vision went black.

When she regained consionsness, her pod was silent... _finally_. She rubbed her head, there was a small bump, which was getting smaller and smaller. She kicked open the door, stood up, and spewed over the side.

"I said softly!" She yelled, as she wiped her mouth. She jumped out and looked back at the pod. It was oval shaped, gray colored, and completely and utterly broken. Not like she could use it to leave anyway.

She turned to inspect her suroundings and was taken back by what she saw. It was dark in the room, and from what she could tell from the window, it was night time outside. She was in a curcular room, with two doors leading who knew where. There were huge windows on one side of the room and some old toys freshly used. The only light came from the city lights outside. _So_, she thought, _this_ is _a_ _populated_ _planet, thats good to know... I wonder if Jornie and the rest of them got out in time, or even heard me. No, I shouldn't think about that right now. I need to find out where I am_. She walked over to a sign on the wall, figuring it might tell her something about where she was. She stared at it, trying to read the language. It didn't look like Latina, the language she was used to speaking, but looked very familiar. She studied it for a few more moments, then it clicked.

"English! Thats what they speak! This must be Earth!" She said with some excitment. _So_, _this_ _is_ _what_ _it_ _looks_ _like_, she thought with wonder, _its_ _so advanced.. at least, more advanced than I would have thought_. Compared to Diesnorath, it did seem very advanced, on the outside at least. She switched her language to English, the langauge she was told they spoke, then read,

"Ministry of Sience, Best Robot Awards of the Year... Ministry of Sience? Robots?" _Really advanced,_ She thought. Diesnorath had robots, but they were still a newer tecnology.

She turned her attention to the pod once more, then realized there was a crater under it and a large red rimmed hole above it. Oops, it appeared she made a new door.

She stared at the pod and crater for a few minuets. There was nothing she could do about them. She knew some of her kind had the power to deal with that... but she couldn't yet.

Then she heard foot steps coming from one of the doors._ Uh oh, _she thought. They must have heard the crash landing, Erin was just surprised there weren't more coming. That landing should have awaken everyone in the city. She looked around for the nearest exit, and ran over to the other door, only to find it was locked. She swore to herself and ran to the windows looking over the side. Judging by its hight, the building was easily 50 feet high, but it looked like her only option. She thrust her shoulder into the window, braking it on her first try. She could hear the foot steps quicken, and Erineana jumped out the window.

She started falling fast. Thoughts flew by in her mind, as she fell. Then her hands cought a clothes line a few feet from the ground. The line cut into her skin at she held on, she bit her lip to keep from yelling in pain. Just to make her luck worse, the line snapped, sending her and some unsuspecting clothes falling to the ground. Thankfully she hit a tarp from one of the shops at a slower speed, making her roll of and fall into the mud. The clothes fell around her as she stood up, wiping the mud from her face. She let out a low sigh, then heard a scream. _Time to go!_ She thought.

Arineana ran for it, thinking to herself as she did, _I'm going to need a job if I'm going to survive here, if I survive the night_.

Chapter 3

Astro woke up in his sill bed, the morning light shone through onto his face. He blinked as his eyes adjusted. Then he yawned, a long, kinda loud yawn. He looked at his watch, and jumped up in alarm.

"I'm going to be late for school!" He said, pulling his clothes on as fast as he could.

"Whats wrong big brother?" Zoran asked sleepily.

"It's time for school!" He said, grabbing his backpack. It was the start of school again, and Zoran's first day.

"Oh boy!" She said excitedly. She had been looking forward to this for the whole summer.

Zoran jumped off the bed and raced down stairs, going so fast it looked like she left behind a trail of steam. Astro followed her, grabbing her bag as he went.

Once he reached the bottom, he found her already charging. The doctor sat on the couch, drinking coffie and reading the news paper. Astro read it from where he was:

**HEAD LINE NEWS**

**A unknown craft was discovered in the Minsistry of Sience. No one knows were it came from, but police are on the look out for any aliens among us.**

Astro was about to ask about that, but the doctor had already started speaking.

"Good morning Astro, you slept for a long time." Doctor Oshay had apperantly already said good morning to Zoran. _Maybe later,_ he thought. Instead he brought up the subject about last night.

"Doctor, did you hear any strange music last night?" Astro asked as he started charging.

"No, not really. I slept through the night. Why do you ask?" The doctor replied. Astro and Zoran looked at eachother.

"We heard music last night. It sounded like a bunch of wolves howling," Zoran said, taking her bag from Astro. Doctor Oshay became thoughtful for a moment, then said, "I don't know what you heard, it was problably just a pack of wolves passing by." Though he didn't sound convinced. Niether did Astro, and from the look on Zoran's face, she didn't either. Those howls didn't seem natural, nor did the human voice that joined them. They didn't push it, though.

"Oh! Look at the time! You two had better be off to school!" Said the doctor, hurrying them off.

"Later Doctor!" They both said, running to school.

Once they reached school, Astro directed Zoran to their class room. They were emmediatly greeted by Astro's friends; Alaho, Kennedy, and Abocromby. His adopted brother, Reano, studied at the Ministry, so he didn't join them at school.

"Hey Astro! Did you hear the news last night? There's an alien in the city! Hey Zoran!" Alaho exclamed. Alaho was a geeky kid with a large base ball cap who knew just about everything. Kennedy was a kind, dark skinned boy with soft features, while Abocromby was a large light skinned(and bossy) kid with two large front teeth.

"I don't know... my mom seemed to think it was some kind of hoxe." Kennedy said, thinking.

"It's probably just someone exagurating." Abocromby agreed.

"I think it might be true." Zoran said. Everyone stared at her. "I mean, it could happen, right Astro?" They looked at him.

"Sure, I've met aliens before." That's when the teacher, Miss Miokie walked in. She was a brown haired, tall young woman, with a kind and determind face.

"Alright class, settle down. Everyone," She gestered to Zoran,"This is our new student, Zoran. I expect you will welcome her with open arms." Some of them mumbled a bit, but then they went quiet as Zoran sat down next to Astro and his group.

"Alright class, lets go for our first lesson in the hollow-grid." The teacher said, as she started leading them out into the hall.

As they walked through the hall, Alaho came up behind him and wispered, "What's the surprise?" This cought Astro completely off guard.

"How did you know about that?" Astro asked, surprised.

"It's in the news. Doctor Oshay made a statement about it a week ago." Alaho replied. "He said it was going to be their greatest achevement yet."

_How could I not have known?_ Astro thought.

"I'm not sure, he didn't tell us." He said. "He's going to show us this afternoon."

"Oh, can you show it to us too?" Alaho asked, excitement in his voice.

"Sure." Astro said.

Once they reached the hollow-grid, they all gathered into a circle in the middle of the room. The room itself was cirular, and had no windows.

"Alright class, we're now doing World war 1," Miss Miokie said as the scene in the room shifted.

"There was a world war? Why would the world fight?" Zoran asked confused. She couldn't understand why people would do such horrible things. Astro knew this. The teacher began to go on about how the war started by the assasonation of a prince and how their anger drove them to revenge, and in the prosses allying themselves with a country called Germany.

"I can't believe someone would kill a prince, that just not right." Kennedy said. Everyone agreed with him. Miss Miokie sighed sadly.

"Some people do things that arn't right because they don't agree." She said. Just then there came an earie sound... it was the same sound they had heard last night!

"Who's making that sound?" She asked them. No one answered, because none of them were making it. The sound started to mess with Astro's brain. He got dizzy, and started to lean on the side of a progected tank. Zoran seemed to be having the same difficulty.

"Astro!" Kennedy yelled. He ran over to help, the group right behind him.

"I don't feel right." Zoran said groggly.

"Where's it coming from?" One of the kids asked.

"There!" Alaho yelled. Everyone looked up to see at the top of a progected bunker, a small white wolf with red angry eyes sat howling. As soon as it saw it was cought, it growled, stopped and disappered. Astro could think again, and as far as he could tell, so could Zoran.

"What was that about?"Kennedy asked.

"I don't know." Astro said. He still felt dizzy, but to a much lesser extent.

After school, the group headed for home, all the time talking about what had happened. There hadn't been any more problems during school, but it still conserned the teachers that there had been a problem at all.

"What happened back there Astro?" Kennedy asked.

"I'm not sure... I suddenly felt really dizzy." Astro said. "That sound started messing with my thought prosseser."

"Me too." Zoran said.

"Why didn't we feel anything?" Abocromby asked.

"It must only effect robots," Alaho said, thinking. Everyone went silent.

"We heard the same thing last night, except there were more joined in." Astro said, contiueing their conversation after a few minuets.

"What?" The group asked.

"How come you didn't mention this before?" Kennedy asked, excitement showing.

"I didn't think it was important." Astro said. Zoran pipped up,

"There was another voice joining in, though. It was a girl's voice." She said.

"Do you think this could have anything to do with the alien ship?" Kennedy asked.

"Maybe we should investigate. After all, if we find it, Astro can deal with it!" Alaho said happily. Everyone agreed.

"But we're going to see the surprise!" Zoran said,"Doctor Oshay said so."

"Alright, we'll meet up at the secret hideout in an hour." Kennedy said.

"Ok! See you-" Suddenly Astro frose. _The music_... He collapsed.

"Astro!" They all yelled. They gathered up around him, trying to wake him up, but he didn't wake. A Growling/singing sound started up and it sounded very close, when they looked around, the small wolf from the hollow-grig was there.

"Hey! It's that wolf again!" Alaho yelled. "Shoo! Shoo!"

"Where's Reano when you need him?" Abocromby asked himself. Just then a girl ran up to them. She was golden haired and very pretty. The wolf stopped and glared at her, only to be met in turn with a glare. It growled at her for a moment, then turned and took off down the street. She then rushed to see what she could do for the group.

"What happened?" She asked them, crouching next to Astro.

"Music started up and he just stopped and collapsed." Alaho said, consern on his face.

"Who are you?" Abocromby asked, suspisous. She didn't answer. She looked at Astro and closed her eyes, concintration on her face. She opened them, then said,

"Wake up." Just as they were about to ask what she was doing, Astro opened his eyes. He found a girl staring at him.

"What happened?" He asked, as they helped him up.

"You passed out." Kennedy said. "How are you feeling Astro?"

"I feel fine." Astro replied. "The last thing I remember, is that sound in my head again, though in a different tune. It was really strong this time."

"Astro? Your that kid robot right? I've heard stories about you." The girl said, then she turned to Zoran. "And you must be Zoran, his sister, right?" Zoran blushed.

"Yep, thats me!" Zoran said happily.

Alaho repeated Abocromby's question. "Who are you?"

"My name is Erin. You should stear clear of the music, it messes with robot's electronic brains." Then she looked at the sun. "I'd better be going." She ran off before anyone could say anything.

"That was weird." Kennedy commented. "I wonder why that wolf took off after it saw her."

"Wolf?" Astro asked.

"It was that wolf from earlier... It showed up again." Zoran said.

"I wonder who she is." Alaho said, thinking. Then to himself he mumbled, "I wonder if she's free..." No one besides Astro really heard that, but he didn't say anything. Everyone stared after her.

Chapter 4

After that the group split up and headed for home. Once Astro and Zoran got home, the doctor came over and greeted them. Emmediately Zoran jumped on him and begged, "Now can we see it? Please?..." Astro was trying not to laugh.

"Yes Zoran! Yes!" Doctor Oshay said. He put Zoran down on the couch, then said, "Now you can see her."

"Her?" Astro asked, confused.

"You can come down now!" He yelled upstairs. Suddenly a young girl who looked 12 walked down the stairs. She had dark brown hair, a nervice smile and blue eyes. She wore a midnight blue T-shirt, and shorts, with black boots.

"A sister!?" They both exclamed, surprised.

"Astro, Zoran, this is Cora. She was made by Doctor Tenma as a new prodotype. She is like you two, except she can eat like a normal person. Cora, meet Astro and Zoran."

"It's nic-" Cora began. Zoran ran up to her and began shaking her hand vigorously like she did when she first met Astro.

"It's nice to meet you!" Zoran said happily.

"... You too.." Cora said. The doctor laughed.

When she finnaly got Zoran to stop shaking her hand, Astro came up and said," Hi, I'm Astro." Cora smiled and shook his hand as well... just not like Zoran's. Then Astro looked at the clock.

"We have to meet up with the group!" He said, then he turned to Cora." Do you want to come too?" Cora hesitated, then nodded looking curious.

"Let's go!" Zoran exclamed.

"Wait! Where are you going?" Oshay asked.

"We're going to the hideout to investigate about the alien!" Zoran said, running to the door. Astro nodded.

"Well, alright. But be back by nightfall." Oshay said.

"Ok!" They agreed, running out the door.

"Bye Doctor!" Cora called.

Once they had left, the doctor sat on the couch and sighed,

"Kids." That's when the telephone rang. He got up and answered it.

"Detective! What can I do for you?" He asked, surprised, then exclamed, "What?"

Once Astro, Zoran, and Cora reached the seceret hideout, they started up the latter. The secret hideout was a basicly a tree house. It sat on a very large tree, a long latter came down from it and led up to the tree house's front porch. Once they were all up the latter, they were greeted by the entire group, with Reano included this time.

"So, Astro where's..." Alaho's sentence was cut short as he layed eyes on Cora. He was struck speachless.

"Hey! This is Cora, our new sister. And the surprise, because she can eat food!" Zoran said proudly.

"Hi." Cora said nervicely.

"Wow! Another one! And she can eat food?! The micanics to do such a thing..." Alaho said, amazed.

"Are you nice?" Abocromby asked her.

"Last I checked." Cora said, smiling slyly, showing her sharp canines. "So... who are all you guys?"

"I'm Alaho!" Alaho said proudly, straitning his glasses.

"I'm Kennedy." Kennedy said, smiling.

"I'm Abocromby," He said.

"And I'm Reano." Reano said, pulling out a stool for Cora to sit on.

"It's nice to meet you all." Cora said, sitting on the stool. She smiled at all of them, and began looking around the room.

"Hey, Astro," Reano said,"I heard you were going on a hunt for that alien. I wanted to help."

"Sure. Have you found out anything while you were at the ministry?" Astro asked.

"Not really. I wasn't in the area that the ship was in." He said, "But I think it might be somewhere around the top of the ministry. I know it's not much, but I think we can find out more if we go and see that ship."

"Umm... What alien?" Cora asked. They told her, as well as the wolf encounter. She became thoughtful.

"Well? What are we waiting for? Let's go!" Zoran said, running to the latter. Everyone fallowed after her, wondering what they were getting themselves into.

Once they reached the ministry, they ran to the elevater and went up about 50 floors. The doors opened and they all poured out, then ran through the hall, looking for the right room. It took them a few trys, but they eventualy found it. They passed many people on the way, most of them gave the group strange looks, probably wondering why they were in such a hurry.

Once in the room, they found many scentists examining the gray pod. The crater was large, but not as spread out. Above them was a large hole. Among the scentists, Miss Uko, Doctor Oshay's secretary, and her pink robo ostrige on steroids, stood a few feet away, and with them stood the golden haired girl that had helped Astro. Miss Uko was a very determind looking woman. She had red hair and a serious expretion, but she was still kind. Erin was wearing a blue T-shirt with a skirt, her long flowing hair fell around her. She seemed to be taking notes.

"Hey, Astro."Alaho wispered,"It's that Erin girl." They walked over to Miss Uko.

"How's it coming?" Astro asked. He looked at Erin. "Hello again, I never really got to say thank you before you ran off."

"Your very welcome."Erin said, giving him a smile.

"Oh, you know Astro?" Miss Uko asked.

"Ya! She helped Astro when he was in trouble." Kennedy said.

"Astro was in trouble? What happened?" She asked, consern came on her face. So, they told her, then she said with discomfort, "You should report this to Dr. Oshay..." She sighed. "Things are going rather slow, no one has been able to activate the ship." She then turned her attention to Cora.

"I see you met everyone. How are you enjoying things?" She asked her.

"It's been fun so far." Cora said. She turned her attention to the pod. "Can we have a look at it?" Miss Uko turned her attention to it.

"I suppose... Have you seen Doctor Oshay? He should be here by now." She said, looking around. That's when he came in along with Dectective Tiwashy, the doctor was out of breath.

"Doctor!" Astro, Zoran and Cora said together.

"You're 5 minuets late." Uko said.

"I'm sorry, I got held up." He looked nervice as he said that. There was deffinatly something bugging him, Astro noticed. Then Oshay noticed Erin.

"Oh, who is this young lady?"

"This is Erin, she is my new assistent." Uko replied. "She signed up this morning." Erin smiled at the doctor, then went back to taking notes.

"I didn't know you needed an assistent." He said.

"As I said, she signed up." She said. The doctor then turned his attention to the ship.

"Has anything been found?" He inqired.

"Besides the fact it's from outer space, nothing. It seems to be broken." She said. Cora walked up to the craft, and stared at it. Astro did as well. There wasn't much happening about it, except for the scentists scurrying around it. One of them sat in it, trying to turn it on, but couldn't.

Cora came over to him. "Can I try?" She asked, her puppy eyes begging.

"Sure, but I don't know what it will do. I've been sitting in this thing for hour, and nothing has happened." He replied, getting out.

"We're robots, it might work for us." Zoran said, running over to watch. The group came over as well. Cora looked at the controls for a minuet, then flipped a switch on the top. The sistem sparked for a moment, then flickered off.

"See, broken." The man said.

"Hmmm..." The dectective said. "Try it again." Cora flicked it again, this time it stayed on. The man looked surprised, then looked emmbarised. They all gathered around. The moniter turned on, and started showing words in a different laguage.

"What laguage is that?!" Abocromby asked. Even Alaho seemed dumstruck.

"Language excepted." A female voice said. Suddenly the screen became readable.

"Wow, did that thing just say something?" Zoran asked.

"Apperantly." Tiwashy said.

"Well, what does it say?" Oshay asked. Cora looked at the screen.

"Not much, just some stuff about landing. Something about thrusters?" Behind Astro, Erin had stopped taking notes, and was staring at Cora as she tryed to read the screen.

"Hang on, I think I got something. It seems to have recorded what happened in this pod... maybe I can show it." Cora started pressing a couple buttons, then the screen started to change. But before anything could show, everything shut down. No matter what they did it wouldn't turn on.

"I don't know what happened, it just shut off." Cora said confused.

"Maybe you pressed something wrong." Alaho said, staring at it.

"No, I'm pritty sure I pressed the right buttons... That shouldn't have happened." She summed up.

"She's right. There was a surge in one of the sistems right before it shut down." Astro said, using his exray eyes to examining it. "Don't think this was an accident. It's to much of a coincidence."

"Hmmm... keep working on it. In the meantime, Astro, Zoran, Cora, I need to speak with you."

"Alright." Astro said. Cora climbed out of the space craft, and fallowed the Doctor, along with Astro and Zoran. The detective also came, but everyone elts stayed to see if they could bring it back online. As Astro passed Erin, he felt strange. He looked at her for a moment. She was watching the work on the pod, her note pad hung uselessly at her side. The detective noticed Astro stare at Erin.

"Something wrong, Astro?" He asked. Erin turned to look at Astro, then he noticed nerviceness in her eyes. What was she nervice about? But that look disappered almost immeadiatly.

"Astro?" He asked again.

"No, detective." He said. It was the truth, nothing was wrong. But Astro new something was up with Erin, he just didn't know what. Erin looked away, and began to take notes again as Miss Uko and her robot bird walked up. The detective stared at him suspitously, then continued after Doctor Oshay. Astro fallowed, looking behind him to catch a glimps of Erin watching after him.

Chapter 5

They fallowed Doctor Oshay down the halls to his office. They were quiet, mostly. Zoran kept asking what the doctor wanted to talk to them about but he kept saying "Not here." Cora was silent, prabobly wondering why the pod malfunctioned. Astro was also pondering this... Was it a coincidence? Or was someone trying to stop them from seeing who was in that pod? But in order to do that, they would have had to have been monitoring it and when someone tryed to mess with it... Astro considered this. Erin seemed suspisous, she was near that ship when it short circited. Could she have done that? But she wasn't that close to it, so how could she have done it? But the way she looked at him, it was nerviceness in her eyes as she watched him leave... And the fact he felt strange when he passed her... All these questions welded up in his head. He supressed them as he entered the office.

The office was very large and very wide. Huge windows sat at the back of the Doctor's desk and expaned from there. Just above the door was four large platinum screen TVs, for when people contacted him and watching the news.

The doctor sat in his desk and sighed heavily. The three robots sat in chairs that had been pulled up. The detective remained standing.

"Astro, Zoran, Cora..." He sighed, then gave it to them strait, "We're moving."

"What?!" Zoran and Cora exclamed together.

"But why Doctor?" Astro asked, he for one, liked his home.

"Detective Tiwashy has told me there has been a prison brake. Someone let them loose, and must have told them exactly where we live."

"What?!" The three exclamed together.

"A few minuets after Doctor Oshay left, you had a brake in. They didn't steal anything, they just left a note." The dectective said as he reached into his coat pocket. He pulled out a small crumpled peice of paper, then handed it to Astro. "Do you reconize the signiture?" Astro stared at it. There was a snake with three slashes. Cora and Zoran looked over at it as well.

"It's the Reapo Girls." Astro said. They were the only ones he could think of with a snake and there were three of them. Zoran seemed to agree, though Cora had no idea who they were talking about.

"Who?" Cora asked, confused.

"The Reapo girls. They enjoy dumping toxic waste into parks and space, basicly anywhere no one will notice, for profit." Astro summed up.

"I really hate those girls." Zoran said, making a face. Those girls had tried to blow her into space, and had tryed to distroy Astro many times.

"What's the big deal though? Why not sent Astro to put them back in jail?" Zoran continued.

"They've all disappered." The detective said, sighing. "We can't find them anywhere. They've left the city and have grouped together somewhere elts. I sent Atlas to see if he can find them, but he hasn't found anything so far. They're planning something, and if I didn't know better, they will go after their biggest threat." He nodded toward Astro.

"So, Detective Tiwashy thinks it would be best if we moved closer to police headqurters, just in case." Doctor Oshay stated. "They're already packing our stuff."

"Is that what took you so long to get here?" Cora asked.

"Yes. Unfortunatly, we won't be ready until tomarrow, so the detective will send a couple watchers to make sure we are safe." Oshay said.

After that, they all went back into the room with the ship. No one seemed to have been able to get it working again, which wasn't very surprising. Alaho was in the gray ship this time, pressing random bottons, but nothing was happening.

"Oh, come on! Work!" Alaho yelled at the thing, then he kicked it angerly.

"Nothings working." Abocromby observed, playing the part of Captain Obvious.

"So, I take it you haven't gotten it started?" Cora asked, entering the room. Alaho sigh in frustration.

"No." He said, kicking the controls again.

"It's getting late," Doctor Tiwashy said putting his hands in his coat pockets, "Everyone should start packing up and head home. We'll continue this tomarrow." He was right. Astro hadn't noticed the time, but as he looked at the sun, he could see it sinking below the hurizon.

"Where's Erin?" Miss Uko asked, looking around the room. She was gone, and apperently, no one had noticed before now.

"She probably saw it was getting late, and went home." Astro said, thinking back when she seemed to be able to tell the time by the sun.

After that, no one said much, but instead, started packing their equipment and shutting down everything. while everyone was busy, Astro and his sisters pulled the group aside.

"So? What did Doctor Oshay say?" Alaho asked, shifting his glasses.

"We're moving." Zoran said sadly.

"What? Why?" The group exclaimed.

"Shhhh! We don't want the whole world to know!" Cora whispered. They lowered their voices.

"Why?" Reano asked, "Where?" The three told them.

"This is not good." Reano mumbled.

"So, what do we do?" Abocromby asked, uncomfortablely.

"We'll meet up at the club house to tomarrow after school." Astro said, then added, "Alaho, I noticed something odd about Erin. Would you keep an eye on her?"

"You can count on me!" He whispered happily, straitening his cap.

"What did you find?" Reano asked, "She seems fine to me."

"She seemed afraid of something in here. I saw it in her eyes, and when I passed her I felt strange." Astro explained.

"I felt it too." Cora said, "Could she have something to do with the pod?"

"Or she could be leading those wolves we saw." Abocromby added. "That might be why the wolf was afraid of her." They all became thoughtful.

"Astro, Zoran, Cora(thats a mouthful), it's time to go home!" The doctor called. He was standing at the door.

"See you tomarrow!" The three robots said to the group, then went with Oshay.

That night, Astro woke up uncomforable. He had his room back, and his bed, but he still wasn't able to go back to sleep.

"Why can't I sleep?" He asked himself. He got up and sat on the window sill. His eyes watched the busy cars pass his home... his old home, but his mind was thinking about the day's events. Moving was one of the biggest surprises to him, as was the prison brake, but the one that took first place was Cora. What was he to think about her? She seem great, but she also seemed a bit dodgly.

Then he heard faint music, the sweet howl. For some reason he felt like he had to go toward it, it was a very strong impalse. _No, I have to fight it!_ Astro thought to himself, but he couldn't. He jumped out the window and quietly snuck past the guard. The sound took him into the streets where he found the voice's owner.

It was a larger wolf than the other one he had encountered. It had brown fur and it's eyes were as red as fire. It waited for him as he approached, then, once he was close enough, started walking down the street still continueing it's sweet song. Astro had no choice but to fallow.

It didn't take long before they reached the police station. Once there the wolf turned it's head at it and made a snorting sound. It would have been funny if he wasn't in trouble.

"Where are you taking me?" Astro asked. The wolf looked at him for a second, but didn't do any more than that. It ran to a large man hole, and then turned to face him, it's beady eyes gleamed in the darkness.

_Your journey ends here._ It said to him.

"What do you mean?" He asked. Suddenly, it's tail came up and pointed at him, like a scorpion. The music had stopped. Astro knew he had to go, now.

_This! _It said, and as it said it, a bolt of electrisity shot from it's tail and hit Astro, zapping all his energy before he could move. He fell to the ground, not able to do anything. He was completely powerless, which he wasn't use to. As his power left him he saw the wolf move the top of the man hole to the side and come over to him, then he faded into blackness.

Not far away, Erin was sitting on her roof. She was thinking about how close they had come to discovering her. That robot kid Astro seemed suspisous of her and one of his friends, the kid with the large glasses, tryed to fallow her every time he cought a glimps of her. She bearly managed to get away. _From now on, I need to be more careful._ She though to herself. She watched the stars in the night sky, wondering if she could spot Diesnorath from here. The stars were really beautiful at this time of night, and though she couldn't see Diesnorath, she still searched the stars for any planets she might know. The cold air nipped at her arms and face, but she didn't notice.

"I wish you could be here, Jornie." Erin said sadly, a tear slipping down her cheek. She still couldn't believe they were all gone. She hugged herself as she fought the horrable thoughts that swelled in here mind.

Suddenly her mind was pulled away as she heard a familiar sound. It was a wolf's howl, from one of the wolves that had tryed to disable Astro and Zoran. Hearing this again could only mean one of them was in trouble. She jumped up immeadiatly and searched for the source. She looked near the police station and saw movement. She jumped down from her roof and raced to the police station, fallowing her ears. As she got closer she saw a brown wolf and Astro colapsing. The wolf had just lifted him up onto his back when Erin finally got there.

"Hay you! Put him down!" Erin yelled at him. The wolf turned it's beady eyes on her and growled. _This doesn't consern you girl!_ He said to her.

"It does if you mess with Astro!" She shot back. The brown creature lifted it's tail and shot lightning at her. She flew back and hit the police station. When she had recovered the wolf and Astro were gone.

Chapter 6

Cora woke up in her new bed. Zoran sat next to her, trying to wake her up.

"Good morning Cora!" Zoran said happily. Jumping off her bed and running over to the dresser to get ready.

"Good morning Zoran." Cora said, some what overwelmed. She got out of bed and fallowed Zoran's example, changing as fast as she could. She was going to be joining the class today with Zoran and Astro, but she was a little hesitent to go.

"Zoran? What's school like?" She asked, pulling her skirt on.

"I only started yesterday, but it seems fun to me." Zoran answered. Then Nora, their robot "nurse", came in. She had been busy for about a week babysitting a couple other kids, and had just arrived home that morning.

"Girls! Astro is missing!" She exclaimed, looking like she was going to short curcit.

"What!?" They yelled, fallowing Nora into Astro's room.

His room was the same as it had been when they had left him, but the window was open. His blankets were tossed as though he had left in a hurry.

"What could have happened?" Zoran asked, running to the window.

"It looks like he left, but why?" Cora asked, passing his bed

"I don't know! Ohh! Dr. Oshay isn't going to be happy about this!" Nora yelled fearfully.

"What do we do?!" Zoran asked, fearful for her brother.

"I'm not sure..." Cora said, thinking. Just then Doctor Oshay entered the room, looking a little out of breath.

"That's the last of the heavy stuff, now all we need is your... What's wrong?... Where's Astro?!" Oshay asked fearfully.

"That's the problem... We.. don't know." Cora said uncomfortably. "He's gone."

"What?!" Oshay shouted.

"What do you mean he's gone? Astro wouldn't just leave!" Detective Tiwashy said, crossing his arms.

"Not unless he was forced." Cora said.

"Ugg, we have a bunch of crimanals on the loose and Astro ends up missing." The detective mumbled, "This is a disaster."

"Please, you have to help me find him!" Oshay exclamed, begging.

"Of course, without him we might as well kiss this city goodbye." Tiwashy stated. Then he turned to the police robots, "You heard him Delta, try searching the area around his house first. And question the guard, he might had seen Astro."

"Yes sir!" Delta replied. With that the whole squad took off.

"We'd better be off to school." Cora said. Zoran remained silent, which was a first.

"I'm afraid that won't be possible. Last night there was an explosion in the school... No one got hurt, but most of the school is gone. No one is going." Tiwashy stated sadly, shaking his head.

"Ugg, why does everything have to go wrong?" Oshay asked the air. Cora and Zoran looked at eachother.

"We'd better be going." Zoran said, pulling Cora's hand, but Cora was already way ahead of her. Before anyone could say a word, they were gone.

They found the group already in the secret hidout. Since the school was out, this was the only logical place they would go, other than their house anyway, but the girls had hoped that wasn't the case. Once they climbed in they were bombarded with questions, but the one that showed up the most was "Where's Astro?", so the girls decided to fill them in. Once they were done, everyone was looking at eachother nervously.

"So... Astro's been captured?" Kennedy asked.

"We don't know, he didn't leave any notes or anything." Cora said.

"He must have been captured! He wouldn't leave us like this!" Zoran said angerly.

"But that's imposible Zoran, Astro's the most powerful robot ever. How could anyone take him down?" Abocromby asked. Just then Reano came in in a hurry.

"Guys! I brought someone who saw Astro get taken!" He said, helping up a girl. They all looked at her in surprise as they relized the girl was Erin.

"I heard that Astro disappered from Dr. Oshay, then I started here when I found Erin looking for us." Reano explained, turning to Erin for answers.

"Astro was taken by the wolves." Erin said, "I couldn't stop the one that took him. He had some sort of lightning beam and took me by surprise, then he disappered with Astro. They vanished somewhere close to the police station." She told them.

"Wait, how do we know you're telling the truth?" Abocromby asked, suspisous.

"She is telling the truth." Cora said, "I can tell. Besides, why would she lie to us?"

"Maybe she did it." Aboromby said. "Astro was suspisous of her, so she could have taken him and set up this story!"

"I did not! I wouldn't wish harm on him for the world! I happened to be there because..." She started.

"Because she was watching the stars when she heard them." Cora said, remembering her dream. Erin looked at her, shocked.

"How did you know?" She asked Cora. Everyone seemed just as surprised as Erin at Cora.

"I had a dream last night... I watched through your eyes." Cora looked at Erin, and Erin looked like she knew that Cora knew her secret. Suddenly, Cora heard a voice in her head, _Now you know... Please, don't tell anyone what I am! I would be in great danger!_ Cora nodded. Erin smiled at her. _Thank you. _

"So... now what?" Alaho asked, not knowing what to do.

"Now we have to find and rescue Astro!" Zoran said, standing up, preped and ready to go. They nodded to eachother.

"Fallow me. I can take you to the last place I saw him." Erin said running to the latter, the group right behind her.

On the way, Erin slowed her pace until she was level with Cora. Cora was thinking about her dream, how Erin had tryed to save Astro, but that beam had stopped her. How were they suppose to get past that? She wondered.

"Hey, Cora... You know what I am, don't you?" Erin asked her quietly to where no one elts could hear her.

"Yes, you're the alien that came here." She said in the same tone. Erin nodded.

"How did you get into my mind? I block all that try it, but I couldn't feel you." Erin said, trying to figure it out, but couldn't seem to. Cora shrugged.

"I don't know... I could feel how you were feeling, and see what you were seeing... but I don't know how." Cora said, pondering it herself.

"When did it start?" Erin asked.

"Last night... I don't know what activated it." She replied.

"What can you do exactly?" Cora asked her with some curiosity.

"Well... I've been practicing teleconesis, and telempithy as you just heard... I can heal, though most of the time it happens whether I like it or not... and I've been trying to learn to fly... but I can only do a high jump." Erin replied, blushng a bit. Cora was impressed.

"Wow, I wouldn't want to go up against you." Cora commented, smiling. Erin turned bright red. Just then she stopped.

"Here." She said, running to the exact place where she had stood. "This is where I last saw him." Cora walked over and looked at the scene, the group right behind her. They started searching the area, Cora looking around the place where Erin had been standing when she had fought the wolf... sort of.

"It might wound the detective's pride if he found out Astro was captured right next to his headquarters." Cora noted to herself. Then she noticed a disterbence around the man hole.

"Hey guys! I think I found something!" She yelled to them. They gathered around her, looking intently to see what she had discovered.

"There's disterbence around this man hole... It looks like it's been moved..." Cora told them, "Here, help me lift this." They all assisted in lifting it. Once it was moved they all gathered around the hole. It was very dark and very uninviting.

"Anyone want to go first?" Reano asked. They all didn't seem to want to go, but then Erin said, "I'll go first, and once I give the all clear, Cora, you come after me. Then everyone fallows after you."

"Alright." Cora said. They all agreed, though uncomfortably. Erin jumped down and they heard a splash as she landed, then there was silence.

"Erin? What do you see?" Cora called down. Silence.

"Erin?" Alaho repeated. Silence. They waited a few more minuets, but still there was no reply.

"You think something happened to her?" Reano asked with consern.

"Maybe I should go down-" Then someone call up, "All clear!" It was Erin! They could now see her from the enterince, holding a flash light.

"What took you so long? I was about to come in after you!" Cora said sturnly, but she was secretly conserned.

"Sorry, I had to deal with a guard a little ways down. When he heard you he started to reach for a talking divice, so I snuck around him and got the drop on him," she explained, "I also managed to get this off him." She continued, gesturing to the flashlight. "It's safe to come down now."

"Alright," Cora said, then turning to the group she said, "Kennedy, Abocromby, can you stay here and guard so no one surprises us?"

"Sure," Kennedy said.

"But what if you don't come back?" Abocromby asked.

"If we're not back in two hours tell the police and if they come by here, tell them we went after Astro." Cora answered. They both nodded.

Once she was down, Reano, Zoran and Alaho fallowed her, landing into ankle deep water.

"Yuck!" Zoran said, looking at her feet. Alaho agreed with her. Reano and Cora however, didn't seem to mind.

"Come on." Erin said, shining her newly acwired flashlight forward. From there, Cora and Erin led the group through the tunnals.

Chapter 7

It didn't take long to get throught the tunnals with Cora and Erin leading them. Besides the every once in while mutter from Zoran(something about strangling someone...), it was silence as well.

Once they reached the end of the tunnal, they found an old wooden door. There was no man hole above it, which was a little weird.

"Finally! Now we can get out of this muck, and save Astro!" Zoran said with some excitement.

"Seems a little too quite..." Reano said uncomforably. Cora agreed with him. Erin cautiously walked over and lightly pushed on the door, holding her flashligt like she would a weapon. The door opened with no trouble, it wasn't even locked.

"I don't like the look of this." Alaho muttered.

"Niether do I." Erin agreed. Alaho seemed slightly pleased she agreed with him, but he seemed to be trying to hide it. Cora noticed this and nearly gaged. Him with her? Not a good mix, not counting the fact she was several years older and from another planet.

"So.. do we go in?" Zoran asked, unsure.

"We have no choice." Cora said, " Astro is in there, we have to go... even if it's a trap." Which it most likely was, but they still had to take the risk. They all agreed. Erin went in first, Cora and the rest of them right after her.

They entered into what looked like an old, but very large, underground basement. It looked like it had been resently used, but no one seemed to be there. Boxes lined the room. The lights were turned off, making the room look really creepy in Cora's opinion.

"It looks like a ghost lives here." Zoran commented, looking creeped out.

As they walked closer to the center of the room, the lights started coming on around them. Zoran gulped behind Cora.

"Wait." Erin said, stopping. In front of her there was a large curcular hatch. As Cora brought her eyes above it she saw...

"Astro!" She shouted. Indeed hanging above them was Astro. He seemed to be unconsous. They all looked up.

"Astro!" Zoran said, running past Erin, but she couldn't reach him. "Oh! Astro! Wake up!"

"He has been completely drained of energy. Unless we can charge him, he's not going wake up." Erin said, observing him.

"How are we going to get him down?" Alaho asked, looking around. Erin was about wnswer but was cut off by a woman's voice.

"You're not!" She said. They all turned their attention to the end of the room. On top of some boxes three loudly dressed women stood, and right next them was the wolf Erin had discribed, as well as a smaller white one.

"The Reapo Girls!" Zoran said, some what surprised.

"You were right, they did come after him." Reapo girl one said to the brown wolf.

"I gotta say, I had my douts." Reapo girl two said, also to the wolf.

"But now that we have the rest of the cacoro robots, nothing can stop us." Reapo girl three concluded, smiling. The wolves growled.

"You?! You did this to Astro?" Zoran yelled at them. She looked so mad, she might have been able to take them down herself. Suddenly the hatch started to open right below Zoran.

"Ahhhhh!" Zoran yelled. She tryed to run to the end, but just as she was almost there, the foor opened below her reveiling a lava pit.

"Ahhhhhh!" Zoran screemed as she fell. The group rushed to the edge.

"Zoran!" They yelled. But before Zoran could hit the lava, she stopped mid air. Cora looked next to her to see Erin consentrating.

"Erin?" Alaho asked, seeing this as well. Zoran came right back up and landed next to Reano. They rushed to her.

"Are you alright?" Reano asked her with consern. Zoran looked herself over.

"I think so..." She said, shaken. Meanwhile, the wolves were curcling around the pit.

"Too bad, I would have liked to see that little loud mouth get fried. Maybe we should try Astro next." The blonde one said, holding up a switch. She and her sisters laughed. Cora's blood broiled.

"No one hurts my brother or sister!" Cora yelled. She charged the wolves, not thinking about the consequences.

"Cora!" Reano yelled from behind her. She jumped right onto the brown one and wrestled with him. He tryed to buck her off, but she held on.

"Get Astro!" She yelled to the others. As she said this the wolf tryed to buck her off again and this time was sucessful. Cora landed on her back and before she could get back up the brown wolf was on her, his claws on her chest.

"I wouldn't try it, if you do, those wolves will have your little friend for dinner." Reapo girl two said, just below her pink hair Cora saw her smiling. She bearly heard Alaho yell in surprise. Just as the white one curcled around to jump her a golden colored wolf attacked the smaller wolf.

"Erin?" Cora said, with a look of some surprise. Erin's attack startled the brown wolf as well, this gave Cora an advantige. She kick him in the stomick and sent him flying into the Reapo girls. They screemed as he hit the lead Reapo girl and brought them all down.

"Ugg." They grunted.

Cora ran over to the group. Behind her she could hear Erin doing battle with the white wolf.

"Are you ok?" They asked.

"I'm fine, but Astro won't be if we don't get him down." She replied.

"But how? None of us can fly..." Alaho said.

"What about that remote they had? It must control the hatch." Reano said. Cora thought for a moment.

"We need to get that remo-" She began, but she was interupted by a yell. She turned around to find Erin had transformed back into herself and was being attacked by the electicity beam.

"Go get that remote!" She said, running over to help Erin.

"What are you going to do?" Zoran called after her as the group ran around the pit. Cora didn't actually know what she was going to do, but she had to do something.

The wolf had stopped firing at Erin, and Erin was on the ground, breathing hard. Cora ran over to her.

_Hah! You can't beat me! _The wolf said to them, giving them a toothy grin.

"Watch me!" Cora said angerly. She then charged the wolf and the wolf in turn fired his beam.

"Cora!" Erin yelled. But Cora was fine. The beam hadn't even scratched her.

_What?_ The white wolf gocked. _What arn't you distroyed? _Cora had no idea why, but she decided she would check it out later. The wolf backed up fearfully.

_Don't come near me or I'll give Astro a firely bath! _He said, pointing his tail at the chains that held her brother.

"Don't you dare!" Cora said angerly. The wolf narrowed his eyes at her.

_I dare! _He said, shooting his beam at Astro.

"No!" Cora yelled. But before it could hit, Erin got in way. She had jumped in the way of the beam, and let it hit her instead.

"Got it!" Zoran yelled. The hatch closed just as Erin landed hard.

"Erin!" Alaho yelled. He rushed over to her side, Reano and Zoran behind him. The wolf growled at Cora.

_Clawecus will beat you!_ The wolf growled at her. He leaped at her, but she already saw it coming. She jumped to the side and as he landed she grabbed his tail and threw him after his brown friend. He landed on the Reapo girls just as they were coming to. Oops.

She ran over to Erin. She had a couple of scratches, but other that that, she was fine.

"Wow, that was..." Cora began. Erin smiled.

"Thanks to you, I'm still here." Erin said to them.

"So, you're the alien?" Alaho asked.

"Yes... I am." She admited.

"Cool!" Zoran said.

"Please don't tell anyone." She begged.

"We won't." Reano promised. Erin smiled at all of them.

"Now, we need to get Astro down." She said. Erin jumped up to him and broke the chains that held him. She cought him a he landed in her arms.

"Now, to get-" Cora began. The door flew of it's hinges behind her as police flooded the room.

"The room is sicure!" Delta said as he inspected the room.

"Good." Detective Tiwashy said. Right behind him came Abocromby and Kennedy.

"Guys!" Abocromby said happily, running over to them with Kennedy.

"Sir! We have the prisoners in costedy." Delta said.

"Astro!" Dr. Oshay said, pushing past Tiwashy.

"He's fine, just needs to be recharged." Erin repeated.

"What?" He asked fearfully.

"He'll be fine, there's no damage to his brain, he just needs charge." Erin assured him. Oshay looked a bit less fearful. Then Astro stired, blinking his eyes. He looked at Erin's face, then at Oshay's.

"Doctor?" He croked.

"Astro!" Oshay said happily, taking him from Erin.

"Astro! You're awake!" Zoran exclamed.

"I am now." Astro said, smiling weakly.

"Can you walk?" Erin asked him.

"I don't think so... It looks like you saved my life again." He said.

"It wasn't just me, all your friends came to help you... I just kinda tagged along." She said, smiling.

"What happened here anyway?" Tiwashy interigated them.

"It's a long story." Cora said. So, they told him, but had to make up a small portion of it to keep Erin's secret.

Chapter 8

A couple days later...

Cora stood next to Dr. Oshay's desk at the ministry thinking about the past events that had taken place. They had moved into a five story house closer to the police station and Cora had to admit, it was a pretty nice house, even if it was overkill. Erin's secret hadn't been told to anyone elts, save the rest of the group and Astro. They kinda had to tell them. Erin had contiued to work for Miss Uko without suspision, and the ship had been move somewhere elts in the Ministry of Sience for further study, but Cora knew they weren't going to find anything. Erin had told them she had been the one who sabitashed it and that no one was going to get anything out of it anytime soon. Cora smiled at the thought.

The detective stood not far from her, along with Delta and Astro. Cora saw that Astro and Delta were talking softly so no one could hear, not even her. A few inches to the right of her Miss Uko and Erin stood, keeping scedual and taking notes, though what for Cora had no idea. Erin looked kept looking up at Astro and Delta, it almost looked like she could hear them. That made her wonder...

"Miss Uko? Can I borrow Erin?" She asked sweetly.

"Hmmm? I guess, she and I are done anyway." Uko replyed. Erin walked over to Cora, slightly confused.

"Whats wrong?" Erin asked quietly.

"Can you hear them?" Cora asked.

"... Yes, I'm not trying to eavesdrop, but I kinda can't help it." She replied, embaressed.

"What are they talking about?" Cora asked curiously. Erin looked at her funny for a moment, then smiled.

"They're talking about Atlas. He hasn't come back." She informed Cora.

"Oh, I thought they were talking about something elts." Cora said. Erin looked like she was trying not to laugh.

"I'm getting nervice about him as well..." Cora said with a look of discomfort. That's when the door to Oshay's office opened, startling Cora. A beat up robot that looked like a teenager stumbled into the room... It was Atlas!

They all rushed over to him. He was severly damaged, Cora wondered how he even made it back here.

"Atlas! What happened?" Astro asked, trying to help him up. But Atlas couldn't say anything, or stand. Erin ran over to Atlas and looked at him, knowing she had to help him. Cora could sence this.

_Are you nuts? _

_I have to do it. _Cora heard Erin's voice in her head. She looked at Erin.

_Then they'll know! We can wait until some one can fix him. _

_There isn't enough time._

_But...Do you... _But Erin looked at her stubbernly, then nelt next to Atlas. She took his damaged arm and closed her eyes. Her hands began to glow brightly and Atlas's wounds began to repair themselves. Everyone gasped, all except Astro and herself.

"What the?" Tiwashy exclaimed.

"Erin's..." Doctor Oshay started, shocked. Miss Uko didn't look like she could find words to say, she was too stunned. Cora could understand that. If her assistant was an alien from space, then she would be freaking as well.

By the time everyone looked like they had recovered their wits, Atlas was completely repaired. Erin swayed a bit and almost fell backwards, thankfully Astro caught her. Atlas looked really confused. Delta helped him stand up, but said nothing.

"Did I miss something?" Atlas asked them.

"I think we all did." Oshay said.

"Astro, Cora, is there something you forgot to tell us?" Tiwashy asked them. Delta crossed his arms.

"Ummm..." Cora began, not knowing what to say. Erin stood up next to Cora.

"Don't blame them, they were just protecting me. I asked them not to say anything because I was afraid if you found out the truth, I would end up like the pod I came here in... an expirement." She told them. "They were just being good friends." Astro and Cora smiled. The others looked at eachother.

"My real name is Erineana Sathorna, but I was called Erin..." She paused, looking like she had remembered a bad memory, but she continued, "My ship was higacked by pirates. I bearly got away, then I found myself here. I tryed to blend in, but when Astro was captured... I knew I couldn't hide anymore. I had to use my powers to save him, and I hoped no one but those that had been there would keep my secret... But I couldn't just stand here when Atlas was gravely hurt." She said, looking at Atlas, "I won't be surprised if you tell everyone about me now." Oshay looked at Erineana.

"I won't tell a soul." He said, smiling. Erin looked at him greatfully. Miss Uko nodded.

"As odd as I find this, I won't either." She said.

"Niether will I." Atlas said, smiling at her, "After all, you did save my life." Erin blushed a bit. They all looked at Delta and Detective Tiwashy. Tiwashy sighed.

"Your secret is safe with me and Delta." He said, looking at Delta. He nodded.

"Alright!" Astro said happily.

"Thank you, all of you!" She said with so much gratitude that her face beamed.

"Now that that's settled, Atlas, what did you find?" Tiwashy asked him. Atlas looked away from the excitment, and turned to Tiwashy.

"I was... ambushed before I could clearly tell, but I think I found Their hideout." He informed them.

Meanwhile, Clawacus sat on the construction of his new base. He watched the construction eagerly.

_Soon, I will have Extreme Extermination up and running._ He thought to himself. Then a black wolf ran up to him, panting.

_Sir, we're almost done._ He said.

_Good work John, come, sit with me._ Clawacus said to him. John sat next to him proudly.

_Can you see it John? Finally, my human's dream will come to be realized. _

_What about Cora and Astro? Not to mention our new problem, that Erin._ John spat.

_Minner problems. Besides, those Reapo girls were weak. Though, that Cora girl intreges me. She will be our best champion in the games!_ Clawacus said with a toothy grin.

_And that Erin?_ John asked.

_Don't worry, I have a plan for her. Go get Katary, he'll be needed for this mission._ Clawacus commanded John. He nodded and took off down into the construction sight.

_Yes, I can see it all. And no one will be able to stop me!_ Clawacus made a laughing sound.

**End of Book One**

Diesnorthian,- Dies north in Athens. Funny name right?

Our story by, KB

Writen by, TB


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